I used to think of Palm Sunday as a simple moral reversal. You expect a king on a warhorse, but Jesus chooses a donkey to teach us humility.
Now I see something metaphysical in it. In God’s eternal purpose, creation is ordered toward Christ and His Passion helps us decode what is real. The triumphal entry reveals how God exercises power in Jesus: lowly, peaceful, and brooding over Jerusalem like a mother hen.
Zechariah had already joined this donkey-riding king to the end of chariots, warhorses, and the battle bow. The warhorse in this scene represents a counterfeit power: domination mistaken for kingship. The animal itself is not evil, and martial authority is not the whole target.
The donkey is not the less glorious animal. It is the only mount that could reveal this King. Our desire for the warhorse is the inversion.
Of course Jesus says the stones will cry out if the people do not. The scene looks ironic only because we have forgotten the humility and peace of our Father.
Welcome to The Keep. We're Alan and Joelle Kern, and this blog serves as our family's digital journal. Here we share our experiences as parents to Luke, Levi, and Aletheia, along with our faithful dog, Augustine (Gus).
Alan's background spans from military service to evangelical ministry, and now to software engineering with a focus on AI. When he’s not working on a company project, he’s playing sports with the kids, gardening, or reading about a new branch of knowledge he hasn’t explored yet.
Joelle is the cornerstone of our home life. She manages the kids’ homeschool and is passionate about developing our backyard into a sustainable food forest. You can usually find her helping lead our local homeschool co-op committee or taking the kids out to a sunny park day with friends.
We’re looking to answer the question: what would happen if you threw away conventional thought about everything and worked tirelessly toward finding and pursuing the Good and the True? We hope this leads us to paths that will stretch us beyond a conventional American lifestyle and into a life of purpose and joy.
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